pattyleo182
Lairian
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2020
- Messages
- 36
- Points
- 19
Hi all,
I'd like to tell you about our boy Max and his journey through this awful rare heart condition.
My husband Ian found Max (a Sphynx) wondering on our street, cold and lost back in May 2019. He spent one night with us and I felt in love with him instantly. We called our local vet who came by and scanned his chip. They said the chip was registered in Russia but she believed he might live nearby.
So he was returned to the owner and I didn’t see him again for another 7 months.
At the time I thought it was a girl and named her Lulu I had never had a cat in my life so I knew nothing about them.
Bc we had bought “Lulu” some food and littler, we wrote a letter to the owner saying we had fallen (Myself particularly) in love with their cat and would like to donate what we had bought the cat and have a proper chance to say goodbye. It wasn’t until December 2019 that the owner got in touch with me and asked if we could look after Max (that was his real name and ends up he was a boy!) for the holidays.
Of course I said yes! And that’s how Max came back into our lives and basically hasn’t gone away since.
Soon after his owner told us she wasn’t able to look after him properly anymore and wanted to share him as he liked it so much with us.
He became my baby. He’s the most playful, loving, funny cat I’ve ever met! He behaves a lot like a dog, as most of you would know, because he has no fur he’s constantly looking for cuddles, warmth and love. He’s quirky and clumsy and silly but the most passive, lovely thing.
Ours is actually his 5th home. Apparently he was born in Latvia, then lived in Russia, Cambridge, London and now us (also London). But in our house he’s the king! He sleeps with us, he gets loads of attention and he’s taken over our whole world.
His owner had actually bought him to haunt mice but Maxi is no real hunter so the deal is we'd give him back whenever she hears mice coming back (She lives only 10 doors away). She's a nice lady but has kids and a dog and probably a lot going on so she's simply unable to give him the attention he needs.
He went back to fulfill his duties about 3x since December, only for a few days. Things were a bit chaotic at their home so she’d call us straight away so we’d come collect him each time faster than the last.
The last time he came back to us (about a month ago before lockdown) we noticed he had a bit of a belly and his breathing was really high. When I raised this with his owner she mentioned he might’ve eaten the dog’s food and sometimes he breathes heavy cos he’s running after the dog.
For a full week he was in bed the whole time, I assumed he had a cold (maybe even corona :/ ). He even had some coughing episodes that my husband thought was hair balls but how could he if he has no hair! I started a diary with his breathing and counted 40-45 breaths per min on avg. A week after he came back out of his slumber and I realised he had a really bloated belly. I called our local vets (the ones that had reunited him with his owner) and she mentioned I should continue checking his breathing but that for the time being they weren’t seeing patients. He was eating and pooing as normal so they said he was alright as long as he was doing those two.
I felt like he wasn’t the same old Max and after 2 weeks of the belly not going away (and me realising it was definitely not dog’s food or him being fat) they finally agreed to see him.
So last Friday the vet saw him and said it was bad news and he may have a heart murmur but needed to be taken to hospital as his lungs and stomach were full of liquid.
She had started a dose of Furosemide but he needed to have it continued overnight and have an echocardiogram in a hospital to scan his heart properly.
He spent the night at Blue cross hospital that Friday night and for me it was probably the saddest night of my life not knowing if my baby was gonna make it out as the doctor said it wasn’t looking hopeful. We prayed and lit up candles.
(Despite it all being so weird already bc of the lockdown - I wasn’t allowed anywhere, barely even managed transportation to take him there, The owner actually lent me her car).
Against the odds he made it through and got discharged on Saturday night. He had lost 600ml of excess liquid (came back skinny as bones) and the results showed he suffers from TOF (Fallot Tetralogy) a vert rare heart disease that animals can be born with. In Max's case he has got 3 defects in his heart, a small hole and 2 defective valves.
The doctors said his prognosis is very poor and only has weeks to month. I am trying my hardest to stay hopeful. I want to think he’s already been through so much in his little 2 years 9 months of life, so he’ll make it out of this one.
I then joined a FB group of pets with FOT, there's only 7 members. Their pets seem to have the same symptoms (apart from the bloating) but despite them also having a poor prognosis, some have defied the odds and are still alive after 6-8 years.
He’s on furosemide 1ml every 8 hours. We follow it religiously bc we don’t want his lungs and chest filling up with water again. The doctor said it may already be happening.
As I write this, Max has been out of hospital since his diagnosis and the removal of 600ml of excess liquid in his belly and lungs for 1 full week. Initially it was a bit tough as he was extremely weak, acting like a little drunk man, tumbling, lethragic and not wanting to eat much. I now realise that was the Furosemide kicking in. Within 3 days he was back to his happy self, jumping around, running and devouring his food day and night. Unfortunately his bloated belly is back with a vengeance. His breathing is still under 30/min which means its not affecting his lungs or his heart but he's not able to realease the liquid fast enough and just keep filling up. The vets have said that we may be able to change the medicine (tomorrow as it needs to be ordered and that can still take a few days) but that to remove the extra liquid he may have to sedated again and stay in hospital overnight and with his heart condition it is not ideal for him and that I need to consider sending him to babies heaven which I'm simply not sure how to do or even if I can go through it with. I am trying to make this only about him and giving him the best life he can possibly have. I want to give him the chance to live a good life.
He's so happy and bouncy now that I'm so confused and not sure what I should do. (Here are some pics of when he came back from hospital and back with his bloated belly again). Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone been through something similar?
Thank you for reading!
Patty
Pics: 1. The day we found him. 2. In his favourite sunny spot. 3. Sleeping baby. 4. Sleeping with the enemy. 5. When he came back from hospital. 6. Today with his big belly again
I'd like to tell you about our boy Max and his journey through this awful rare heart condition.
My husband Ian found Max (a Sphynx) wondering on our street, cold and lost back in May 2019. He spent one night with us and I felt in love with him instantly. We called our local vet who came by and scanned his chip. They said the chip was registered in Russia but she believed he might live nearby.
So he was returned to the owner and I didn’t see him again for another 7 months.
At the time I thought it was a girl and named her Lulu I had never had a cat in my life so I knew nothing about them.
Bc we had bought “Lulu” some food and littler, we wrote a letter to the owner saying we had fallen (Myself particularly) in love with their cat and would like to donate what we had bought the cat and have a proper chance to say goodbye. It wasn’t until December 2019 that the owner got in touch with me and asked if we could look after Max (that was his real name and ends up he was a boy!) for the holidays.
Of course I said yes! And that’s how Max came back into our lives and basically hasn’t gone away since.
Soon after his owner told us she wasn’t able to look after him properly anymore and wanted to share him as he liked it so much with us.
He became my baby. He’s the most playful, loving, funny cat I’ve ever met! He behaves a lot like a dog, as most of you would know, because he has no fur he’s constantly looking for cuddles, warmth and love. He’s quirky and clumsy and silly but the most passive, lovely thing.
Ours is actually his 5th home. Apparently he was born in Latvia, then lived in Russia, Cambridge, London and now us (also London). But in our house he’s the king! He sleeps with us, he gets loads of attention and he’s taken over our whole world.
His owner had actually bought him to haunt mice but Maxi is no real hunter so the deal is we'd give him back whenever she hears mice coming back (She lives only 10 doors away). She's a nice lady but has kids and a dog and probably a lot going on so she's simply unable to give him the attention he needs.
He went back to fulfill his duties about 3x since December, only for a few days. Things were a bit chaotic at their home so she’d call us straight away so we’d come collect him each time faster than the last.
The last time he came back to us (about a month ago before lockdown) we noticed he had a bit of a belly and his breathing was really high. When I raised this with his owner she mentioned he might’ve eaten the dog’s food and sometimes he breathes heavy cos he’s running after the dog.
For a full week he was in bed the whole time, I assumed he had a cold (maybe even corona :/ ). He even had some coughing episodes that my husband thought was hair balls but how could he if he has no hair! I started a diary with his breathing and counted 40-45 breaths per min on avg. A week after he came back out of his slumber and I realised he had a really bloated belly. I called our local vets (the ones that had reunited him with his owner) and she mentioned I should continue checking his breathing but that for the time being they weren’t seeing patients. He was eating and pooing as normal so they said he was alright as long as he was doing those two.
I felt like he wasn’t the same old Max and after 2 weeks of the belly not going away (and me realising it was definitely not dog’s food or him being fat) they finally agreed to see him.
So last Friday the vet saw him and said it was bad news and he may have a heart murmur but needed to be taken to hospital as his lungs and stomach were full of liquid.
She had started a dose of Furosemide but he needed to have it continued overnight and have an echocardiogram in a hospital to scan his heart properly.
He spent the night at Blue cross hospital that Friday night and for me it was probably the saddest night of my life not knowing if my baby was gonna make it out as the doctor said it wasn’t looking hopeful. We prayed and lit up candles.
(Despite it all being so weird already bc of the lockdown - I wasn’t allowed anywhere, barely even managed transportation to take him there, The owner actually lent me her car).
Against the odds he made it through and got discharged on Saturday night. He had lost 600ml of excess liquid (came back skinny as bones) and the results showed he suffers from TOF (Fallot Tetralogy) a vert rare heart disease that animals can be born with. In Max's case he has got 3 defects in his heart, a small hole and 2 defective valves.
The doctors said his prognosis is very poor and only has weeks to month. I am trying my hardest to stay hopeful. I want to think he’s already been through so much in his little 2 years 9 months of life, so he’ll make it out of this one.
I then joined a FB group of pets with FOT, there's only 7 members. Their pets seem to have the same symptoms (apart from the bloating) but despite them also having a poor prognosis, some have defied the odds and are still alive after 6-8 years.
He’s on furosemide 1ml every 8 hours. We follow it religiously bc we don’t want his lungs and chest filling up with water again. The doctor said it may already be happening.
As I write this, Max has been out of hospital since his diagnosis and the removal of 600ml of excess liquid in his belly and lungs for 1 full week. Initially it was a bit tough as he was extremely weak, acting like a little drunk man, tumbling, lethragic and not wanting to eat much. I now realise that was the Furosemide kicking in. Within 3 days he was back to his happy self, jumping around, running and devouring his food day and night. Unfortunately his bloated belly is back with a vengeance. His breathing is still under 30/min which means its not affecting his lungs or his heart but he's not able to realease the liquid fast enough and just keep filling up. The vets have said that we may be able to change the medicine (tomorrow as it needs to be ordered and that can still take a few days) but that to remove the extra liquid he may have to sedated again and stay in hospital overnight and with his heart condition it is not ideal for him and that I need to consider sending him to babies heaven which I'm simply not sure how to do or even if I can go through it with. I am trying to make this only about him and giving him the best life he can possibly have. I want to give him the chance to live a good life.
He's so happy and bouncy now that I'm so confused and not sure what I should do. (Here are some pics of when he came back from hospital and back with his bloated belly again). Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone been through something similar?
Thank you for reading!
Patty
Pics: 1. The day we found him. 2. In his favourite sunny spot. 3. Sleeping baby. 4. Sleeping with the enemy. 5. When he came back from hospital. 6. Today with his big belly again
We don't have a cat or animal with TOF but... my son has it he is 9 and has had 5 open heart surgeries all before the age of 3 he will need more but is stable for the moment when we found out i was 31 weeks pregnant he was in heart failure and he needed a blood transfusion in utero so we did that but it didnt work he was born at 32 weeks and was not expected to make it but did he gets blood transfusions every 2 weeks for a different condition called diamond blackfan anemia but his heart although leaky is doing good if you ever need to chat feel free to message.
